British Cycling Academy

British cycling is going through a bit of a renaissance right now. Mark Cavendish made a strong claim to being one of the best road sprinters in the world by winning four stages at the Tour de France this year, and this was after he and Bradley Wiggins won gold in the Madison at the Track Cycling World Championships. In that same World Championships, British teams won the Men's and Women's Team Pursuits, the Women's Team Sprint, Chris Hoy won the Men's Sprint and the Keirin, Victoria Pendleton won the Women's Sprint, and Rebecca Romero won the Women's Individual Pursuit (altogether an incredible haul of 9 gold and 2 silver medals). Shanaze Reade, one of the members of the World Champion Women's Team Sprint squad (with Victoria Pendleton) is competing in BMX at the Beijing Olympics this year, and is expected to do well. Nicole Cooke, arguably the best female road racer in the world right now, just won the Women's Road Race gold medal at the Olympics, and Emma Pooley just took silver at the Women's Time Trial.

Great Britain's pursuit track cycling team are seen during a training session of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the Laoshan Velodrome. CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images

But how has Britain made itself so successful? Is there anything that other countries could learn from the way the British run their national squad, especially on the track? In part, Britain's recent successes are down to the incredible amount of work that British Cycling have put into spotting and developing talent, particularly through its Olympic Academy Program, which, British Cycling says, "aims to deliver riders to the Podium programme who are ready to win medals at World Championships and Olympics." In essence, the Academy takes young riders and seeks to develop them into Olympic and World Champion medal winners. Riders "are required to live close to the programme's base in Manchester, and there are many aspects of the Academy life which could be likened to going to University: it's often the first time riders have lived away from home; the skills development and learning experiences they go through are preparing them for adult life in their chosen career; they find themselves having to get on with strangers in a strange environment; and they are often making decisions for themselves for the first time. However, there's probably more at stake day-to-day for members of the OAP than for any university student: the new challenges thrown at them have to be tackled against a background of high levels of self-discipline and year-round performance expectations. Of course, for the aspiring professional cyclist, sacrifices of lifestyle are a small price to pay in return for a chance to chase personal goals." Clearly, the British are not messing around.

While they work on all disciplines of cycling, the Academy's main focus is track, because that's where the most number of Olympic and World Championship medals are available. As Mark Cavendish says in this Guardian piece, he moved to the academy when still a very young cyclist, lived in a small flat in Fallowfield, near the Manchester Velodrome, and began to learn his trade. The Academy "was all about learning hard work, and Rod Ellingworth (the Academy's director) was strict. If we didn't perform in a race, we would be doing three hours around the top of the track in Manchester, or 150km team time-trials in a single line, maybe on a small circuit just to make it harder. He would hide in the bushes to make sure we weren't slacking. I knew he wasn't doing it to spite us but to help us. I knew the position I was in, I knew how much he could help me. If you get that into your mind it can work well for you."

It's important to note that, especially in early years of training at the Academy, the focus is on skills. This is something that I think all beginning track riders should know, and focus on themselves. British Cycling notes, "as with the whole cycling programme, from Talent Team through to Olympic Podium Programme (senior GB team) there is a gradual move from skills training to physical conditioning. The first year in the Academy is usually heavily skills-focused, but as rider progress they will find themselves experiencing the progressive workload increases that they will have to handle if they are to succeed at the very highest levels." Skills first, then strength. It's a valuable lesson.

Clearly, instilling an attitude of hard work and professionalism at an early age has paid off for the British team. Of course, not every British cyclist, and not even every track cyclist on the Olympic squad, has passed through the Academy. But, the Academy seems to be indicative of British Cycling's attitude to winning. The heavy focus on the track does leave a lot of British road racers lamenting the relative lack of funding they feel their part of the sport receives, but it cannot be denied that Britain are the dominant nation in track cycling right now, and as track cyclists like Bradley Wiggins and especially Mark Cavendish make a successful transition to road, surely the profile of British road racing can only get even better?

For now, Cavendish's focus is on the Olympics. As he says in his Guardian column, "the Olympics are the pinnacle of the lottery-funded programme (the Academy). For me the Tour de France this year was a huge objective but, as far as the Games are concerned, it's medal or nothing. I'll be really disappointed if Bradley Wiggins and I don't win the Madison and, if we don't get a medal, we will have failed miserably. This is what we have been building for since I moved into that flat in Fallowfield."

It'll be interesting to see how the British team does this weekend. If they perform as well as everyone thinks they will, it will also be interesting to see if other countries begin to adopt some of Britain's ideas about how to make young, talented cyclists into World and Olympic Champions.